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Naruto AUDTAI: Ch3 Kakashi
Brought to you by This chapter combines Chapters 4,5 and 6/Episodes 4&5 of the manga/anime, so be forewarned, it is a little bit long. This is the chapter where we see how our new Naruto's smarts are actually beneficial for more than just pleasing the fans, and where we see how Naruto's new wily nature and skill help in battle and dealing with such difficult characters as Sakura and Sasuke. =Chapter 3-Kakashi= An hour later Naruto filed in with Squads Eight and Ten and they found seats together. The lunch had been surprisingly productive for their group mentality and Naruto felt certain they had reached at least a certain level of understanding amongst them. He really hated that Sakura and Sasuke had missed it, but there would be time for that later when they weren't all in quite such nasty moods, assuming Sasuke was ever not in a nasty mood that is, he added to himself. Soon the rest of the class filed in, Sasuke taking his usual seat and Sakura unsure where to sit since the squad groupings had scrambled the classroom's usual arrangement. Naruto sighed internally and waved her up to the empty seat next to his. She blushed in embarrassment and came up slightly timidly. She sat down tentatively, and was quiet for a moment, "I'm...sorry about what I said earlier. It was really mean of me, even if you hadn't been there, I shouldn't have said it." Naruto looked at her, "Well you missed barbeque with good company. I'm in a better mood now, but please, from now on, think before you speak. You're too smart to be putting your foot in your mouth like that." Sakura opened her mouth, unsure if the backhanded compliment meant he had accepted her apology or not. Just then though, the Jonin supervisors were coming in. Naruto's gaze flicked to each one as they came in and she noticed his eyebrows going up in surprise at least once. The supervisors were paired off with their squads and left until eventually only Squad Seven was left. Iruka smiled as he rolled up the list, "Well guys, I'm afraid your supervisor is a little late. Don't worry, he'll be here eventually. Just be patient and I'll be back to check on you in a little while." "Hey Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, "Who is our supervisor?" "Kakashi Hatake," Iruka replied with a smile as Naruto's tail stood on end in surprise like an exclamation point, "He's a very skilled shinobi. I'm sure you'll learn a lot from him." Naruto nodded and sat back looking stunned, "Yeah. Yeah I think we will." Iruka smiled, "Alright then, I'll be back to check on you guys later." And out he went. Sakura looked at Naruto who was still staring straight ahead in shock, "Do you know him Naruto?" Naruto's eyes snapped back into focus and he looked at her, "A little bit. Kakashi the Copy Ninja's ex-ANBU, one of their best. If he's our supervisor, then they weren't kidding about training us for heavy combat. We're learning from one of the best shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village." "So how do you know him?" Sasuke asked. "I hang around the Hokage's office a lot listening in to see if I can pick up anything useful," Naruto replied, "I've only heard Kakashi get a handful of missions, nothing lower than a B-rank, usually A-rank, and they're almost always solo missions." Sasuke and Sakura stared at him and then he continued quietly, "And he was one of my Dad's students, so I've met him once or twice." Sakura frowned in confusion, "Your dad was a Jonin?" Naruto looked her right in the eye, "My Dad was the Fourth Hokage." Sasuke snapped around to look at him and Sakura was utterly floored. "Your...your dad was..." Sakura couldn't even process what Naruto had just told her. "Wait a minute," Sasuke said, "Wasn't the Fourth Hokage's family name Namikaze? You're an Uzumaki!" Sakura blinked and started getting ready to chew Naruto's ass for making something like that up, then Naruto replied, "I use my mom's name because Lord Third wanted to make sure that if my dad had enemies they wouldn't come after me for revenge. I was born Naruto Namikaze." "So why do you play dumb?" Sasuke asked. Naruto looked at him, "I don't play dumb. You got into your head a long time ago that you were miles ahead of me and that because of that and the fact that I play jokes and skip class that I must be an idiot. If you paid attention though, my grades were actually a bit better than average. Could they have been better? Sure. Was I by any stretch the worst student in the room? No." "It's rather like Shikamaru being too lazy to do his homework. It's not that he can't, he's actually a certified genius. Homework just bores him out of his mind, so he doesn't do it." Sakura and Sasuke both stared, they had both assumed Shikamaru was a lazy slowwitted slacker. "Or everyone assuming Choji's a fat lazy slob because he eats so much," Naruto continued, "His family's special Expansion Jutsu's require a lot of energy and reserves, so he has to eat in order to keep his strength up. People assume Shino has bad hygiene because of his bug thing. Completely wrong. Have you ever seen the guy's teeth? Whiter than chalk, and clean as a hospital. The Aburame clan work with bugs the way Kiba and the Inuzuka clan do their dogs." Sakura and Sasuke were silent as they realized they had mistakenly made those assumptions themselves and Naruto continued, "People think Hinata's not brave because she's soft-spoken and shy, but she didn't even flinch when she found out why almost all the adults treat me like a monster." Sasuke and Sakura stared, "What?" "What are you talking about Naruto? What do you mean all the adults treat you like a monster?" Sakura asked. Naruto snorted out a short laugh, "You guys never paid any attention to me at all did you? Did you never see me sitting on the swing set all alone watching while the other kids met their parents? Did you never wonder why I was always alone until I became friends with Hinata? Why I didn't have any friends other than her until I made friends with Shikamaru and Choji?" Sasuke and Sakura were really staring now. Naruto smiled sadly, "You do remember what attacked the village twelve years ago on the day I was born right?" "The Nine-Tailed Fo..." The words died in Sakura's throat as she saw Naruto's tail waving gently behind him. Her eyes widened, "No...way..." Naruto kept smiling that strange sad smile, "Very much way. You see the only way to stop the Nine Tails is to trap it inside a living body. It had been in my mother, but apparently someone set it loose while she was having me. After that my parents sacrificed themselves to seal it away inside me because I was the only person it could be sealed into once it had escaped my mom." He unzipped his jacket and raised his shirt to show them the seal, "Lord Third forbade anyone who knew about it from talking about it so that our generation wouldn't know and shun me for it." He put his shirt back down, "It didn't work of course, and after I found out I started keeping this first tail manifested. There was no reason to hide it, and surprisingly enough, everyone I've told about it has gone on completely normal. A lot of people still don't know of course, but now you do." He sighed, "So that's my crappy backstory." He looked at them, "Anyone else feel like having a little show and tell?" Sakura had to sit down, she was quiet for a moment then, "Well geez Naruto, you kinda just made every problem I've ever had seem petty and insignificant." "Not mine," Sasuke said from his seat in the middle of the room. Naruto looked at him as Sakura stared, was Sasuke really that selfish or had something that horrible actually happened to him that she didn't know about? "Well yes," Naruto replied, "but then again your situation is considerably more effed up than mine isn't it?" Sasuke flinched He knows about what happened? he thought. Sakura's gaze flashed from Naruto to Sasuke and back again several times, so something really horrible actually had happened to Sasuke? Just as she was about to ask him about it a voice drawled from the door, "Well, I'm glad to see you three aren't in here wasting time." They all turned and Naruto waved, "Hi Kakashi. So you're our new teacher huh?" "It looks that way," Kakashi replied, "Why don't we go somewhere more comfortable to talk? You're genin now, I think it's time to get out of the classroom." Forty Five Minutes Later After showing them the area they'd be using to train, Kakashi led them to one of the village's many rooftop gardens, and propped against the rail facing them, "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time." "Is there anything specific you want to know?" Sakura asked, "Or just whatever we can think of to say?" Kakashi spread his hands, "Things you like," he said in a laidback drawl, "things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that," he finished as he crossed his arms and continued to look at them with his uncovered eye. "Why don't you tell us about yourself first so we can see how it's supposed to go," Naruto asked with a slight grin and a raised eyebrow. Kakashi looked at him and pointed at himself, "Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate, I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies." That was kinda useless, Sakura and Sasuke thought, All he told us was his name. Kakashi gestured to them again, "Ok, your turn. Naruto, you first." Naruto grinned, "Alright. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like ramen, sleep, and learning new things, and I love my girlfriend. I hate baseless prejudice, boredom, and the awkward silence after a bad joke." "My dream is to become Hokage, protect the Hidden Leaf Village, and one day work up the nerve to propose and marry my girlfriend. My hobbies are mostly pranks and indulging myself with the things I like." Kakashi's face seemed largely expressionless, but it was hard to tell with seven eighths of it covered up, "Alright, next up." He pointed to Sakura. Sakura smiled, "My name is Sakura Haruno, what I like, I mean the person I like is uh..." She shot a glance at Sasuke, "My hobby is uh..." another glance at Sasuke, "My dream for the future is..." she couldn't get past an excited giggle. "And, what do you hate?" Kakashi asked. Sakura got as far as "Na-" before she cut herself off, remembering what had happened earlier that day. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Naaaruto?" Naruto sighed, "Old habits die hard." He sat forward, "The translation of all that was that she likes Sasuke, wants to marry him, makes a hobby out of fantasizing about him asking her out and really doesn't like me that much because she thinks I'm an annoying idiot." Sakura was as pink as her hair and Sasuke was wide eyed trying very hard not to look at her as she nearly fainted from embarrassment. "Well alright then," Kakashi said as though he couldn't have cared less, "Last one." Sasuke immediately sobered back up, "My name, is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything." That second bit earned a bit of a hurt squeak from Sakura as he continued, "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone." The murderous intensity in his voice led to a rather prolonged silence until Naruto sat back, "Well then, guess you've got a choice to make." Everyone looked at him as he continued, "Which of those two is more important to you Sasuke? Rebuilding your clan, or killing Itachi?" Sasuke flinched like Naruto had backhanded him instead of mentioning his brother's name. Sakura's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, wide as saucers as a voice in the back of her mind wondered if maybe she was about to get to find out what had happened to Sasuke that was so bad that even Naruto had declared it effed up. Kakashi simply watched, wondering to himself where Naruto was going with this. "Cause if what I've heard about Itachi is true," Naruto continued, "Then if you care anything at all about rebuilding your clan, you'll start working on that before you go after him, since there's a very good chance you won't come back from that hunt in one piece, if you come back at all." Sasuke's eyes bugged out and he looked even more stunned than he had before, a decidedly novel expression for him. How had he not thought about that? He wondered, When did Naruto get so smart? When did I get so '''dumb' that I didn't think about that?! If Itachi kills me then he'll be the only Uchiha left!'' Then Naruto started talking again and Sasuke saw he had raised Sakura's hand over their heads, "I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I recall hearing that Sakura here has a rather substantial crush on you. Since we're going to be seeing a lot of each other from now on, perhaps she would be a good place to start with that trying to rebuild your clan thing?" Sasuke blinked and then kicked himself, HOW HAVE I BEEN THIS BLIND AND STUPID?! his internal monologue screamed. Outwardly he looked at Sakura like he never had before, gone was the annoying fan girl, replaced instead with a possible future mother for the new and revitalized Uchiha clan! "You may have a point there Naruto." Sakura turned pinker than her hair and squealed with delight before hugging Naruto, "Oh my god Naruto you're the best! I take back every mean thing I ever said about you!" Naruto smiled as he patted her on the back, "Well good, I'm glad we finally cleared the air. Shouldn't you be showing Sasuke how good Sakura hugs feel though? I don't mind, but Hinata might." Sakura immediately withdrew and seemed to teleport onto Sasuke, sliding into his lap, throwing her arms around him and kissing him full on the lips. Sasuke's eyebrows receded upwards behind his hairline and his eyes were the size of saucers, then he smiled and kissed her back. Kakashi smiled, "Well good, you are all unique, have your own ideas, and seem to be bonding as a team already. We'll have our first mission tomorrow." "Sounds good," Naruto said with a grin, "What's our mission?" "It's a task," Kakashi replied, "That the four of us will do together. A survival exercise." Sasuke and Sakura broke off their game of tonsil hockey for a moment, "Survival exercise?" "I thought we were supposed to have a real mission," Sakura protested, "Not more practice." "This is not like your previous training," Kakashi replied. After a moment of silence, "So what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked. Kakashi began chuckling gruesomely, but didn't really answer. Naruto and Sasuke got a sinking feeling in their guts, but Sakura didn't and asked, "Hey that's a perfectly normal question, what's so funny?" Kakashi seemed to smile, and answered in an almost singsong voice, "Well if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." As Sakura finally felt the sinking feeling and it cranked up for Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi continued, "Of the thirty graduates who just came here, only nine will be accepted as genin. The other twenty one will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make-it-or-break-it, pass/fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least seventy percent." Naruto Sakura and Sasuke stared in horror. "See?" Kakashi asked, "Didn't I tell you you wouldn't like it?" "That's crazy!" Sakura protested, "We worked hard to get here! What about the Graduation Exam? What was that for?" "Oh that," Kakashi said dismissively, "That was just to select the candidates who might become genin, or not. That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five a.m. and bring your ninja gear. That's it, you're dismissed. Oh, and tomorrow you'd better skip breakfast, or else, you'll puke." He promptly turned, put one foot on the rail and jumped away so fast he seemed to have disappeared. Naruto Sakura and Sasuke stared after him, then Naruto turned to Sakura and Sasuke, "Okay, before you two go continue your make out session, we need to talk strategy." "What?" Sakura asked. Naruto looked at her, "Do you want to go take that test without preparing for it at all? We'll have to work as a team whatever it is, so we need to get to know each other and our strengths and weaknesses now so we can figure out how to cover them." "And if neither of you have any previous engagements, I think we should work some on fighting as a team. We're supposed to be being trained for heavy combat, we need to be able to fight like it." Sakura smiled nervously, "Yeah, um about that, I'm actually not sure why I was put on a Heavy Combat squad." Sasuke and Naruto looked at her, then Sasuke said, "Well then that sounds like even more reason for us to practice, we need to find out or you could wind up being completely useless." If Sakura had had any lingering doubts about the need to practice, they vaporized instantly in face of the possibility of being deemed "useless" by Sasuke. She leapt up, "Let's go!" Twenty Minutes Later Naruto Sakura and Sasuke stood at the Memorial Stone, looking around. Naruto snorted, "Figures he'd choose here for our training ground. He's always here." Sakura and Sasuke looked at him, "Why?" Naruto walked around the stone and suddenly pointed to two names, "That's why." Sasuke and Sakura walked around and leaned close to see what he was pointing at, "Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara," Sakura read before looking back at Naruto, "Who are they?" Naruto crossed his arms, "They were his teammates. They died in the last war. Kakashi comes here every day to mourn them, and all the others that have died." "That's so sad!" Sakura exclaimed, and Naruto nodded, "It is." He suddenly wrapped an arm around her and another around Sasuke, "So let's make sure we don't all wind up dead aye?" Sakura and Sasuke looked at him like he was slightly unhinged, then they smiled and nodded, "Alright. Let's get started." The Next Morning The three of them dragged themselves up to the Memorial Stone, yawning wearily. "Hi guys," Naruto yawned. Sakura yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Morning." Sasuke didn't say anything, just nodded and made a sort of dozy grunt. They stood there for a while, then Naruto looked around and wandered off, looking around and squatting down to check the ground occasionally. By the time they were all fully awake, the sun was high in the sky. Naruto looked around irritably, "He's late." It was another hour still before Kakashi finally walked up, "Good morning everyone." They all glared at him, "You're late." "Well a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take a different route," Kakashi replied with a smile. His three students were unamused. "Well," Kakashi said, clearing his throat, "Let's get started." He walked over to a stump and pulled out an alarm clock, which he promptly set on the stump, "Here we go." The three young ninja looked at it as he explained, "This is set for noon." There was a slight jingling as he held up two small bells, "Your assignment is very simple, you just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch." That earned a noise of exclamation as the three realized that was why he had told them to skip breakfast. "You will be tied to those posts," Kakashi continued, "and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you." The three all looked slightly mortified by the notion, their stomachs had all long since started rumbling. Suddenly Sakura noticed something, "Wait a minute, there's three of us! How come there's only two bells?" "That way," Kakashi replied, "At least one of you will wind up tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission." The three all stared in shock as he continued, "That one goes back to the Academy. Then again, all three of you could flunk out too." They all three glanced at each other and all silently worried that the teamwork they had worked so hard on the night before might come undone now. "You can use any weapons, including shuriken," Kakashi told them, "If you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells." "But those weapons are too dangerous Sensei!" Sakura protested. "Calm down Sakura," Naruto said grimly, "He knows what he's doing. He wouldn't be a jonin if he couldn't keep himself alive against us." Sakura thought about arguing but saw the hard light in Naruto and Sasuke's eyes and realized they were right, Kakashi surely wouldn't tell them to go all out if he couldn't handle it. "When I say start, you can begin," Kakashi said. Naruto and Sasuke shifted into ready positions, Sakura quickly following suit as Kakashi told them to get ready, "aaand...START!" Naruto immediately folded his hands into an activation sign as Sasuke and Sakura ran to either side, "Shadow Army Jutsu!" Kakashi was suddenly surrounded by shadow clones, all of which immediately pounced on him. Kakashi leapt upward, causing the shadow clones attacking him to collide and disappear, "Well, you're certainly not wasting any-" "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled and Kakashi's eyes widened as he searched for a shuriken flying at him to multiply into a storm instantly, wondering how Naruto knew such an advanced jutsu. As he searched the Naruto clones, another voice suddenly yelled from above him, "Fire style! Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi quickly pulled a substitution with a nearby log and narrowly evaded Sasuke falling on him from above. As he landed where the log had been something suddenly grabbed his ankle, he looked down and saw a hand poking up out of the ground before the hand yanked his leg and tried to drag him into a hole. Kakashi managed to yank his foot free of his shoe and escape, the Naruto clone under him surfacing with nothing but Kakashi's shoe. Kakashi sprang back and narrowly managed to cut the line of the snare his now bare foot landed in. He landed on his hands and back flipped back to his feet, but before he could say anything a pair of feet slammed into his back and the Naruto clone lunged forward, hands outstretched for the bell at Kakashi's side, Kakashi quickly struck the Naruto clone, and was surprised to see it bend but not break under the force of his blow, the outstretched hands actually managing to brush one of the bells before Kakashi leapt away, seeing as he did that it had actually been Sakura transformed into a Naruto clone. That's a clever move, he thought, a clone would've dissipated, but Sakura was able to keep going." Sakura spun as she landed and two Naruto clones caught her, hefting her upright and then allowing her to spin and hurl them one after the other at Kakashi like living javelins. Kakashi ducked and dealt them both uppercuts as they were nearly upon him, causing them both to disperse. Then suddenly Sasuke was hoisted on the shoulders of the Naruto mob and threw a shadow windmill shuriken at Kakashi. Kakashi caught it and immediately realized something was amiss, then it turned into Naruto, quickly grabbing for the bells and actually almost getting one. Kakashi dropped him and shot a stomp into him, thinking it to be another shadow clone. As his foot connected Naruto grabbed him and wrenched his leg sideways, hurling Kakashi to the ground before rolling on top of him and pulling Kakashi's leg with him as Naruto clones leapt to pile on. Kakashi pulled a substitution with the log from earlier, only to find Naruto still clinging to him, and Sasuke and Sakura waiting for him, Sakura quickly grabbing him in a full nelson and Sasuke quickly snatching at the bells as Kakashi kicked at him with his free leg. Sasuke pulled up short to dodge Kakashi's kick and before he could lunge again Kakashi broke Sakura's grip, and with an almighty heave hurled her into Sasuke before driving a heavy hand into Naruto who finally let go with an ''oof. Kakashi sprang back away from them and found himself fending off the remaining Naruto clones as Naruto Sakura and Sasuke regrouped. By the time Naruto caught his breath, all his shadow clones had been broken. Kakashi watched the three of them warily, "Well, you are all doing very well, but you still have to get one of the bells, and there are still only two." Naruto patted Sasuke on the shoulder, "I think it's time for that technique I told you about." Sasuke looked at him, "Are you sure?" Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure." Sasuke nodded, "Alright then..." Kakashi watched them warily, what were they up to? Sasuke held his arm out to Sakura and she took hold of it and the seat of his pants as Naruto backed up, then she picked him up off the ground and spun him, once, twice, three times and then on the fourth spin she let him go and sent him flying at Kakashi, "BULL AND SNAKE JUTSU!" Kakashi easily dodged and suddenly had his feet kicked out from under him as Sasuke grinned triumphantly, "Shadow Army Jutsu!" Kakashi's eyes bugged out as Sasuke suddenly turned into Naruto and multiplied into a hundred as a pair of arms wrapped around him and latched on, legs going around his arms and binding them to his sides to keep him from making any hand signs. Kakashi's eyes widened and then the shadow clones fell on top of him. As Kakashi laid there with about twenty Narutos on top of him and someone else under him, he wondered, Now how did they do that? Sakura suddenly ran up, plunged a hand through the pile of Narutos and plucked one of the bells from Kakashi's waist. One of the arms holding Kakashi suddenly turned loose and reached down, taking the other bell as the Naruto clones adjusted their weight to allow the arm mobility. "That's mine," Sasuke said, his breathing labored under the pile of Kakashi and Narutos. Then suddenly Sakura put hers back and Naruto took it, "And because Sakura put this one back, I'm able to take it from you too!" The Narutos all laughed. Sasuke raised his hand and one of the Narutos, maybe the original high fived him as another high fived Sakura, "Teamwork guys! That's the way to do it!" "Naruto...can't...breathe!" Sasuke groaned. "Oh sorry!" The Naruto clones all exclaimed in unison before grabbing Kakashi, and leaping up with each of Kakashi's limbs being held by at least four Narutos while four more held onto his torso and another one helped Sasuke up. As the Naruto clones tipped Kakashi upside down so that if he twisted loose he'd fall on his head, Sakura fussed over Sasuke for a minute and scolded Naruto for not taking the weight off sooner. Naruto protested that it was the first time they had ever used that jutsu and Sasuke smiled and told Sakura to calm down. Then they turned to Kakashi, "So," Sakura asked, "Do we pass? We each took a bell off you." Kakashi thought for a moment, a smile behind his mask where they couldn't see it, "Mmm, yes I think so, but first you must answer one question. You seem to all understand teamwork very well, and your solution of putting a bell back was very inventive, but what if you three were on a mission with enemy ninja chasing and badly outnumbering you, and one of you had to stay behind to allow your teammates to live and carry on the mission? What would you do?" They were all three dumbfounded for a second and then Sakura said quietly, "I would stay behind, and let Naruto and Sasuke go on without me." "LIKE HELL YOU WOULD!" Naruto and Sasuke bellowed at the same time. Sakura and Kakashi were both stunned for a second and then Sakura blushed a very deep crimson, "I would too! I'm the weakest link on this team and we all know it!" "Bullcrap!" Naruto barked, "None of the flying techniques would work without your strength to throw us! I'd stay behind! I've got the Nine Tails! If anyone's got the raw power to fight out tooth and nail it's me! And if I die the Nine Tails gets loose and goes on a rampage killing everybody I was fighting! They kill me and they might as well light a paper bomb in their underpants!" "Well I'm not leaving either of you behind!" Sasuke barked, "If I'm to be the last of the Uchiha then so be it! I'm not letting the only friends I have die! Even if I die the Uchiha go out on an honorable note! Naruto you know full well Hinata would kill us if anything happened to you, and Sakura, you could find somebody to replace me!" Sakura and Naruto both looked at him, then they smiled and Sakura wrapped him in a hug while Naruto slapped him on the back, "Well shoot Grumpy Britches, I didn't know ya cared!" Naruto laughed as Sasuke shot him a long suffering look and then he sobered up, "I think we're agreed then, we'd stay together and win together!" "What if you lose and die?" Kakashi asked. "Then we die honorable deaths in the line of duty in good company!" Naruto declared. "What about your mission?" Kakashi asked, "you can't complete it if you're dead." "Then we'll complete it with our dying breaths," Sasuke declared. "Or at the very least we'll ensure that someone else can finish it in our stead," Sakura added. "We're shinobi," Naruto declared, "We'll endure until the mission's complete." Kakashi blinked, then he raised an eyebrow, "You three are smarter than you look. Or perhaps dumber, given that your answers all bordered on suicidal. Either way," he continued with a smile, "they were good answers. Can you put me down now Naruto? Without dropping me on my head?" The Naruto clones quickly set Kakashi upright and disappeared. Kakashi smiled at them, "Well congratulations. You all pass." Naruto grabbed Sakura and Sasuke and lifted them both off the ground and danced around for a second with them, "WHOOOOO! Dinner's on me tonight guys! WE PASSED!" Yes, Naruto in this version is aware of who his father is and as a result has met Kakashi more than once. If Kakashi were around more, Naruto would probably view Kakashi much the same way he does Iruka, as a big brother figure as much as a teacher. Since I know their battle with Kakashi probably has you wondering, I decided to address the apparently tremendous strength Sakura's possessed since the start of the show when punching the crap out of Naruto hard enough to send him flying, and in the second part of the series to casually not just send him flying, but launch him several hundred meters. That kind of strength does not just come out of nowhere and then disappear again, and if it should show up anywhere it's in combat. So Sakura now has access to her mountainous strength at all times, not just when she's aimed at Naruto, which is how she wound up on the Heavy Combat Team with Naruto and Sasuke. And because in the anime they are shown using flying techniques like these, I decided to expand upon their usage. The Sasuke that fell towards Kakashi right at the beginning was actually a shadow clone so that the impact of landing from such a fall wouldn't break Sasuke's legs. And since I'm sure you're wondering, The Bull And Snake Jutsu requires a throw and double substitution. The shoe Naruto had taken off Kakashi was right next to Kakashi when they executed it. Naruto executed a Substitution to switch places with it as Sakura threw Sasuke, then as Sasuke drew level with Kakashi, he used a Substitution to switch places with Naruto, who was then able to use his Shadow Army Jutsu to instigate an instant dog pile and finally pin Kakashi. ''And I know somebody's going to think that there's no way they could possibly have beaten Kakashi like that and to that I reply that Kakashi canonically stated that if they had been working together they might have succeeded, so I say the scenario presented in this chapter is plausible, especially since I feel certain Kakashi was holding back. ''Also, I'm sure you're wondering about Sasuke's answer to Kakashi's final question, given that in the anime he's a totally selfish jackass who would honestly have most likely left Naruto and Sakura to die even before he went rogue. The answer is simple, this Sasuke just had his world rocked, so he's much more open than usual to the two people who did the rocking, and while Sasuke does have many faults, stupidity is not one of them, and he's smart enough to know that being the only person in the group to not volunteer to stay behind after a question like that would make him look like a completely untrustworthy jackass and probably get him failed. Also, Naruto might've given him and Sakura a heads up that Kakashi might ask such a question." Next Time: Off To The Land of Waves! Category:Naruto Category:Fanon Category:Cackling Shadow